American School of Bombay Mumbai, India 7432 square meters

Grades Pre K-5 650 students

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American School of Bombay Grade 1-5 Flexible Learning Community

FNI was selected as the Planning and Education Consultant and Design Architect for American School of Bombay’s (ASB) new Elementary School and for the renovation and of their existing campus in the Bandra Kurla district. ASB is one of India’s leading educational institutions and caters to a diverse international student body. ASB’s existing campus was bursting at the seams with a long waiting list, so they purchased an 80,000 square foot, six story tower in the Kohinoor Township to house the Elementary School, thus creating a split campus with the renovated campus becoming the Secondary School. This challenge of a split campus was an opportunity to design a school based on the latest research in the field of creating competent environments for elementary school students. Instead of classrooms with four walls, “home pods” made of two moveable walls of cabinets on casters created flexible spaces for learning with views out to the commons and satellite libraries on every floor. The Elementary School is scheduled to open September 2012.

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American School of Bombay Outdoor Play Area

Creating stimulating, yet safe play areas can be a challenge, particularly in this urban setting which is in the same neighborhood of the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai. In this playground designed for the youngest students, landscape has been added to create pocket parks and the emergency fire lane has a cushioned play surface and tricycle track with a colorful mosaic tiled security wall that is easy to power wash. The outdoor learning areas closest to the entries have trough sinks to allow students to work on art projects in the shaded areas. Each floor of the building has outdoor learning terraces to provide more outdoor learning spaces that are especially important to children who live in apartment buildings and don’t’ get enough opportunities to be in nature.

Imagination Playground kits are a set of foam building blocks that are designed to encourage child-directed, unstructured free play. Students can create things such as homes, slides, seesaws, fanciful creatures-anything powered by their imagination.

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American School of Bombay Rooftop Exercise Spaces

The shaded pool is essential for providing recreation in the tropical climate of Mumbai. The rooftop with its multipurpose room, swimming pool, shaded gardens, pizza oven and outdoor kitchen is envisaged to be used for community events and outdoor learning. It also provides another space for expat parents to socialize and make new friends.

Pizza oven Outdoor kitchen

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American School of Bombay Rooftop Outdoor Spaces

This rooftop gathering space creates a small oasis; the built-in seating is weatherproof, and vegetable gardens give students the opportunity to enjoy the wonders of nature in an extremely dense urban city that lacks greenery.

Commons

Learning Studio

Satellite Cafe

Satellite Cafe

Music Room

Satellite Library

Kindergarten

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Color, Material, Texture

Furnishings and lowered ceilings

create child-scaled environments

Reading cubes students can climb inside for private restorative “cave” space

Tackable acoustic panels allow student ownership & personalization

Environmental Control through movable

furnishings

Daylight & Lighting Control

American School of Bombay Kindergarten Learning Community

Personal Storage cubbies

Each pod has an animal for way finding in 6 story tower

Writeable surfaces at child height

Ample storage of resources at child height

Wet & messy zone next to kitchenette

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American School of Bombay Dropped Ceilings for intimate scale and good acoustics

Each home pod has a dropped acoustical ceiling that creates a more intimate scale for children while providing excellent acoustical absorbency to keep sound from traveling from one pod to the next. Each pod has an animal icon for way finding in this six story tower and for home pod identity. Each stairwell is decorated with the animals to make the journey up the stairs fun with small animal icons next to the doors so students can easily remember which floor their home pod is on. The tower was originally designed for commercial use, so the emphasis was on elevators for vertical circulation instead of the basic fire exit stairs that will now be decorated playfully.

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American School of Bombay Way Finding Through Graphics

Twenty nine animal icons were created to identify pods to help children with way-finding. The variety parallels multiculturalism within the school. Large animals such as elephants and rhinos are assigned to older children and smaller creatures such as the frog or turtle are for the youngest.

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Outdoor Learning Terrace

American School of Bombay Typical learning community for Gr 1-5 students

Da Vinci Art & Science Studio

Media Resource Centre with zone for parents an zone for learning assistance

Teacher Collaboration Workroom

Admin Offices

Gathering zone large enough for all students

on one floor Servery & wet messy zone (lunch will be delivered here from the main kitchen)

Home pods

WC’s

WC’s

Small group rooms

Movement stools

Portable chairs & tables

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American School of Bombay Media Resource Library

To contribute to the main design concept of encouraging independent learning, each floor has its own Media Resource Centre which teachers can supervise from neighboring learning pods. A Librarian IT Support staff is at a help desk at each library to provide IT support and help students and teachers hone their digital research skills. One zone of the library is set up for students who need learning assistance such as one on one tutoring. The libraries include a small collection for parents since many books expatriates would be interested in are not easily accessible in Mumbai and it gives them a space in which to socialize with other expats and locals without disrupting learning spaces. Each satellite library has been adorned with a quote appropriate for the age group with henna inspired graphics on each floor to give each library its own identity and define its space as part of the neighboring commons.

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American School of Bombay Flexible Learning Pod

During our design workshops, teachers expressed ideas about what kind of learning spaces would support their curriculum. This learning studio reflects their ideals: Space should not define what educational use would be. Design should support a student-centered classroom. There should be plenty of room for multiple areas of learning that encourage independence and are all child centered.

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American School of Bombay Daylighting

Designing a school in a multi-storied building with a deep floor plate is especially challenging in regards to providing ample daylight for the entire learning community even in the center of the floor. Open spaces such as this Commons allow daylight to penetrate into the central area since there are no traditional classrooms and corridors with solid walls. The pod moveable storage walls have windows to allow daylight to transfer through.